Fountain pen clip



June 10,1941. SULUVAN 2,245,059

' FOUNTAIN PEN oLfP Filed Dec. 15, 1940 INVIIENTOR 0MU/V0 13 SULL IVAN Patented June 10, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,245,059 FOUNTAIN PEN CLIP 1 Edmund B. Sullivan, Mount Vernon, N. Y.

Application December 13, 1940 Serial No. 369,939

4 Claims.

This invention relates to certain improvements in fountain pens.

It is an object to provide irnproved means for securing a protective cap on a fountain pen.

Another object of theinvention is to provide a simple, compact, and effective means for preventing the cap member from, becoming accidentally detached from the barrel portion of a pen while it is in the pocket of the owner, thereby eliminating the danger of inkescaping to the injury of the clothing of the owner.

A further object is to provide a securing device of the character indicated which will not in any way mar the finish on the barrel of the pen.

Other objects and various features of novelty and invention will be hereinafter indicated or will become apparent from a reading of the following specification in conjunction with the drawing, which shows, for illustrative purposes, a preferred form of my invention and in which- Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of a fountain pen with the cap element assembled therewith, the unit being shown carried by the fabric of a users pocket, and said cap element being shown partially sectionalized and broken away:

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of a portion of the cap of the fountain pen taken at right angles to Fig. 1, and viewed substantially on a longitudinal mid-section of the cap to expose a further feature of the invention.

I represents the so-called barrel of a pen, which may be of conventional construction, designed to carry ink therein in the usual way and to feed the latter to a nib l. 2 represents a cap which is preferably internally threaded and designed to be screwed onto a correspondingly threaded portion 2 of the barrel and to encase the nib when not in use. The cap carries a metallic spring clip 3, one end 3' of which is rigidly secured at one end to a side portion of the cap so that its free end will extend toward the open end of said cap and over the threaded portion.

The free end of the clip 3 is provided with an enlarged or bulbous head to permit ready insertion of the pen in a pocket of the user and to provide a more secure anchorage to the fabric 4 of the podket, as will be clear.

Hitherto, in fountain pens of the general character indicated, when the cap is not tightly screwed onto the barrel of the pen, it frequently happens that the pen becomes loose and gradually unscrews from the capeventually to drop into the users pocket where any ink leakage may injure the clothing. In order greatly to reduce this danger, I have provided a simple and effectiveineansf In the preferred form the threaded portion of the cap is interrupted by a U-shaped slit which outlines a yielding tongue 5 which in turn carries on its inside a plurality of short sections of thethread. These thread sections mesh with the barrel threads when the cap is screwed thereon. From an inspection of the drawing it will be seen that, since the spring clip head may be biased to spring inwardly by its own resiliency and since said head overstands the free end of the tongue 5, the surfaces of the short thread sections on the latter may be normally urged positively inwardly 'to'press or crowd against the threaded portion of the barrel to act as an effective friction brake. In order more positively to crowd the threaded portion of the tongue into engagement with the threaded portion of the barrel, I provide a hump 6 on the tongue 5 under the free end of the spring clip and standing slightly above the surface'of said cap so that; when the pen is inserted in'the pocket, and the fabric of the pocket is crowded between the free end of the spring and the hump 5 of the tongue the V-shaped thread sections of the tongue will be forced with added firmness against the threaded portion of the barrel. It will be readily seen that such an added crowding of the interfitting threaded surfaces, even though slight, will exert an additional frictional engagement between said parts tending to prevent accidental separation of the cap from the barrel, particularly when the cap is not screwed on tightly.

It will readily be understood that, since the threading of the cap 5 is of the proper pitch to receive the barrel threads, the corresponding short thread sections on the inside of the tongue will not in any way mar the threads of the barrel when the cap is being screwed on and off. This form of construction I consider to be preferable because the tongue threads by exactly fitting the barrel threads may thereby offer an extended frictional surface engagement and hence extremely effective and efficient resistance to the barrels ever working loose.

It will be seen that I have provided an extremely simple and effective means for firmly retaining a pen barrel and cap as a unit while in clipped relation in the pocket of the user; and it will further be appreciated that my improved device is most readily adaptable to manufacture. For example, making the tongue 5 integral with the cap avoids the necessity of making a separate tongue and the added operation of fastening it to the cap. Again, by having the tongue mounted underneath the clip and pointing in the same direction so as to terminate under the free end of the clip, the open end of the cap may extend only slightly beyond the threaded portion since both the tongue and the clip are mounted toward the closed end of the cap.

While the invention has been described in particular detail and a preferred form illustrated, there is no intention that such a limitation be placed upon it. It is, of course, to be understood that various modifications, additions, and omissions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. v

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, a barrel having an external screw thread near one end, a cap therefor having an internal screw thread near one end and complementary to the thread on the barrel, a spring clip rigidly connected at one end on said cap, the other end extending over the screw threaded portion thereof, a yielding tongue connected atone end to said cap under said clip and bounded by a U- shaped slit in said cap, the sides of said slit extending across the internally threaded portion with a plurality of short sections of similar threads on the inside of the free end of said tongue and under the free end of said clip,

2. In a device of the character described, a barrel having an external screw thread near one end, a cap therefor having an internal screw thread near one end and complementary to the thread on the barrel, a spring clip rigidly connected at one end on said cap, the other end extending over the screw threaded portion thereof, a yielding tongue connected at one end to said cap under said clip and bounded by a U- shaped slit in said cap, the sides of said slit extending across the internally threaded portion with a plurality of short sections of similar 3. In a device of the character described, a

barrel having an external screw thread near one end, a cap therefor having an internal screw thread near one end and complementary to the thread on the barrel, a spring clip rigidly connected at one end on said cap, the other end extending over the screw threaded portion thereof, a yielding tongue formed from the material of said cap and integrally connected at one end to said cap under said clip and bounded by a U-shaped slit in said cap, the sides of said slit extending across the internally threaded portion with a plurality of short sections of similar threads on the inside of the free end of said tongue and under the free end of said clip, and a hump on the outside of the free end of said tongue, said hump normally extending slightly above-the adjacent surface of said cap. 7

4. In a device of the character described, a barrel externally threaded near one end, a cap internally threaded near one end and adapted to screw on to the barrel thread, the threaded portion of the cap being transversely interrupted, means yieldingly mounted in the space formed by said interruption, a plurality of relatively short thread sections on the inside of said yielding means, said thread sections normally meshing with said barrel threads when the cap is screwed on to said barrel, a clip mounted at oneend on said cap, the other end of said clip overstanding said yielding means whereby material crowded between said clip and yielding means will force said short thread sections into increased braking engagement with said barrel threads tofrictionally resist the unscrewing of said cap from said barrel.

EDMUND B. SULLIVAN. 

